Cognitive development
Cognitive development is the study of how a child’s brain grows in terms of information processing, conceptual ability, perceptual competence, language learning, and other aspects of adult brain development. How a child processes their waking experience vs how an adult processes their waking experience has qualitative differences (Such as object permanence, the understanding of logical relations, and cause-effect reasoning in school-age children). Cognitive growth is defined as the ability to consciously cognize, grasp, and explain one’s understanding in adult words. Cognitive development refers to how a person observes, thinks, and interprets their environment as a result of the interactions of hereditary and learning factors.
The process of creating cognitive information is divided into four stages.
The four are reasoning, intelligence, language, and memory. These stages begin around the age of 18 months, when the baby engages in activities such as playing with toys, listening to their parents speak, watching television, and anything else that catches their attention.
The “theory of cognitive development” of Jean Piaget was a major driving force in the development of this field. Piaget postulated four phases of cognitive development: sensorimotor, preoperational, concrete operational, and formal operational. Many of Piaget’s theoretical claims have now been proven false. His representation of the most significant cognitive changes with age is still well regarded today (for example, how early perception shifts away from tangible, external acts).
Later, an abstract understanding of observable aspects of reality can be captured, leading to the discovery of underlying abstract rules and principles, which often begins in adolescence.
Alternative models, such as information-processing theory and neo-Piagetian theories of cognitive development, have been advanced in recent years, with the goal of integrating Piaget’s ideas with more recent models and developmental and cognitive science concepts, cognitive neuroscience theory, and social constructivist approaches. Another paradigm of cognitive development is Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Systems Theory. Nature vs. nurture, or whether an individual’s cognitive development is predominantly influenced by their natural skills or their personal experiences, has long been a point of contention in cognitive development.
Most experts now recognise that this is a false dichotomy: biological and behavioural sciences have substantial evidence that gene activity interacts with events and experiences in the environment from the earliest stages of development.